5/5: Open game thread

The Mariners are back at it again, friends. After sweeping the Athletics of Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland, the Mariners find themselves a game and a half above the Rangers for first place in the AL West. Now, they have an odd situation, where they find their pockets overflowing with the house's money.

The Astros are, seemingly, ripe for a resurgence. The prohibitive preseason division favorites are fresh off a series win against the Twins, including scoring sixteen runs yesterday. Their offense is scary, and with Jose Altuve adding middle of the rotation power to his arsenal he may be on the cusp of an MVP-runner-up type season.

So many things about this season have felt different, and unfamiliar. The Mariners lead the AL in home runs, and they are second in runs. While the possibility exists that the Mariner's thus far stellar run prevention takes a hit (ew, gross) in the train and hill bespeckled former-Enron Field, the distinct chance also exists that Seattle's bats will simply compensate for that, and continue to score runs at a rate we find, quite frankly, indulgent.

A split has a very good chance to bring the Mariners back home in first place. A series win almost assures it. A sweep? Well a sweep would bring the first place Mariners to Seattle, staring the three weakest weeks of their schedule directly in their face, with the whole world open to them.

We're pretty sure this team is different. Tonight we begin to find out how different.

Series Preview

Game Info

• Mariners @ Astros, 5:10 PM PDT, Minute Maid Park
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLB.TV